Born in a wealthy province of Seljuk-ruled Persia, Omar Khayyam was educated well as a youth and became fascinated by science, especially astronomy and mathematics. He built an observatory and created the Jalalaean Calender that was far more accurate than the Julian Calender in use by his European ...

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 into the lower nobility of Florence, to Alighiero di Bellincione d'Alighiero, a moneylender. A precocious student, Dante's education focused on rhetoric and grammar. He also became enamored with a young girl, Beatrice Portinari, whose death in 1290 threw a grieving ...

The archetypal "Renaissance Man," Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest scientific minds as well as one of the greatest visual artists the human race has ever produced. The illegitimate son of a wealthy Florentine notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Caterina, Leonardo was born in ...

Born into a time of extreme political upheaveal, Niccolò Machiavelli was a member of the old Florentine nobility. He received a proper humanistic Renaissance education, and as a young man began the climb up the perilous political ladder of Italy. In 1502 he was sent to Romagna as an envoy to Cesare...

An apothecary before he began to practice the occult, Michel de Nostredame spent the early part of his career battling outbreaks of the bubonic plague in southern France, and northern Italy. Historians attribute his higher-than-average survival rates to his then-radical practice of personal hygiene...

Tycho Brahe was born on December 14, 1546 in Knutstorp Castle, Scania, Denmark, Denmark-Norway as Tyge Ottesen Brahe. He died on October 24, 1601 in Prague, Habsburg Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire [now Czech Republic].

Miguel de Cervantes' baptism occurred on October 9, 1547, at Alcala de Henares, Spain, so it is reasonable to assume he was born around that time, and Alcala de Henares has long claimed itself as his birthplace. The son of Rodrigo de Cervantes, an itinerant and not-too-successful surgeon, Miguel ...

Born the son of a shoe-maker two months before the birth of another famous playwright, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe achieved fame as an Elizabethan dramatist as well as an atheist. He was killed in a tavern brawl by a former friend, allegedly over a bill. There is now some evidence that...

William Shakespeare's birthdate is assumed from his baptism on April 25. His father John was the son of a farmer who became a successful tradesman; his mother Mary Arden was gentry. He studied Latin works at Stratford Grammar School, leaving at about age 15. About this time his father suffered an ...

Michelangelo da Caravaggio was born on September 29, 1571 in Milan, Duchy of Milan, Holy Roman Empire as Michelangelo Merisi. He was an actor, known for Five Revolutionary Painters (1959) and Canvas (1966). He died on July 18, 1610 in Porto Ecole, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Holy Roman Empire.

German astronomer who discovered three major laws of planetary motion, conventionally designated as follows: (1) the planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus; (2) the time necessary to traverse any arc of a planetary orbit is proportional to the area of the sector between the ...

Benjamin Jonson was born 1571 as the posthumous son of a Protestant minister. His mother then moved him to Westminster, where she married a bricklayer. He attended a free parish school as a boy, and thanks to the sponsorship of the headmaster, was able to attend Westminster Grammar School. ...

Peter Paul Rubens was born on June 28, 1577 in Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, Holy Roman Empire. He is known for his work on Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2002) and Visnews (1962). He died on May 30, 1640 in Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands [now Belgium].

Anthony van Dyck was born on March 22, 1599 in Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands. He is known for his work on The Queen's Palaces (2011) and Visnews (1962). He was married to Mary Ruthven. He died on December 9, 1641 in London, Kingdom of England.

Rembrandt van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden, Dutch Republic as Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. He is known for his work on Five Revolutionary Painters (1959), Rembrandt (1962) and Rembrandt (1976). He was married to Saskia van Uylenburgh. He died on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam, Dutch ...

One month after he married Mary Powell, she visited her family and didn't return until 1645. In 1646, her family, having been ejected from Oxford as Royalist (those who supported King Charles I in the Civil War), moved in with Milton (who supported Oliver Cromwell).

Born in July 8, 1621, in Château-Thierry (Champagne, France), where his father was in charge of Water, Forests and Hunting, Jean de la Fontaine spent his whole childhood and adolescence in the countryside, where he mainly studied Latin language. In 1641, he moved to Paris to continue his study at ...

He is the creator of the "Mother Goose" character. His book, "Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye" (Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose) published in 1697, featured a frontispiece with an old woman with a distaff, by a ...

Christopher Wren was born on 20 October 1632 in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, where his father was rector. His father later moved to Windsor and Wren was educated at Westminster School and then Oxford University. He showed an early talent for mathematics and enjoyed inventing things, including an ...

After he wrote the play, "The Gentleman Master", (1672), it was panned by critics, so in the prologue to his most famous play, "The Country Wife", (1676), he offered the actors, mistresses and matrons to the critics in case this was equally badly received. His last play was, "The Plain Dealer", (...